Category: economy

Grand Adventure

If  Coös is selling adventure, it can deliver.

Recognize this view? It’s not from Mount Forist or Mount Jasper, but you can see Berlin in the distance. It’s from a 350 foot tall cliff—clean, steep and beautiful—that’s just part of the adventure available in the North Country.

I convinced my friend Bayard to come check it out with me to see what kind of Grand Adventure we could get into. Bayard is a climbing guide who lives in Madison. He is really strong (check out his blog to see what I mean), owns Cathedral Mountain Guides, is sponsored by Outdoor Research and well known within the Northeast climbing community. I had been telling him for months about this beautiful cliff in Coös, and the other day he agreed to go have a look.

The cliff is an hour and a half from the road, so we met early. At 7:30 a.m. we stood in my driveway sorting our gear for the day. I’d figured out how to get to the cliff a week or so before so I knew where we were going, but what we would need to climb once we got there was another matter. We opted to go light, taking the bare minimum of equipment to avoid carrying heavy loads for hours. We hoped we would find solid clean rock that would take protection, but really we had no idea. We packed up the car and headed off, the sun still low against the mountains.

We started walking on a logging road but soon turned onto a hiking trail. It was still early, and we were moving fast, happy to have the light packs. About the time we got our first view of the cliff the trail degraded into a bog, and we began hopping from moss hummock to moss hummock. We could still make out the outline of the trail, but we had to weave around it to keep our feet dry. The trail plunged into underbrush, and we crawled over downed trees and danced from rock to rock to avoid the marshy spots.

The marsh and the trail ended at a stream, and surveyors tape marked the next half mile. We groped from tree to tree looking for the next piece of flagging tape while bushes pulled at our legs. We kept barreling forward, hoping the climbing at the end would be worth it.

The tape ended in another bog, with a clear view of the cliff. I pulled out my compass and took a bearing. Bayard said he’d never gone through such shenanigans to climb at a cliff in New Hampshire before. We hopped across the bog, crossed another stream, and followed the compass for another 20 minutes to a field of boulders below the cliff.

The view from the base was spectacular—the cliff was covered corners, flakes, cracks, roofs. Climbers use features like these to get up steep walls, and this one was almost vertical. Luckily it looked like there would be just enough to move upward; it was going to be a good day.

We walked up to the center of the cliff, picked out a crack system in a corner and roped up. I got the first lead, so I pulled on my rock shoes, chalk bag, rack of gear and started up. The rock was sharp, with big crystals that bit into the back of my hands as I jammed. The crack was wider than I wanted but not wide enough to quit, so I grabbed hold of one side and walked my feet up the other, climbing toward the sky.

“Looks awesome,” Bayard yelled as I inched upward. One of my pieces of gear was behind a hollow-sounding flake, but it was the best thing I had. I leaned back and punched it to the next roof, where I found a good crack that took two pieces of rock protection.

The last 40 feet of the pitch eased up, with small holds on the right wall to grab hold of and a flake on the left for gear. I got to a ledge the size of a dinner table and built an anchor. “Off belay,” I yelled to Bayard below. He could barely hear me through the wind.

Bayard raced up to my anchor, removing the gear as he climbed. We exchanged brief smiles on the belay ledge, and then he kept going to the top of the cliff. He made short work of the second pitch, and soon I was climbing up to meet him.

Up top we found some old bolts and pitons, evidence someone else had come this way before. They were old, worn and covered with rust; it’d probably been a decade since they went in.

We could just see Mount Washington between Adams and Jefferson, the trio rising above the surrounding mountains. But we didn’t pause long to admire them; we still had work to do. We rappelled to the ground and traversed the base to see if there was another obvious line.

Bayard had his eye on one of the low roofs on the south end of the cliff. It looked like it had a perfect handcrack above it, and he wanted to take it all the way to the top. The roof itself looked hard, but things would probably ease up once you made it over it.

I led first, up a slab past two old bolts from the 1970s. I stopped just below the roof and set up a belay to bring Bayard up to me. He grabbed the gear and headed left, towards the handcrack at the lip of the roof.

He placed a piece in the corner and then felt for the edge. It was six feet to the lip. He rearranged his feet, trying to reach the crack, and pushed his palm into the roof for stability. He was placing gear blind so he couldn’t evaluate it; if it wasn’t good and he fell it could rip and send him into the slab below, hard. He backed his first piece up with a second and looked over at me. “One of them has to hold,” he said with a shrug, and launched out for the crack.

His feet cut and his hands groped holds. He curled in, rolling up like a hedgehog, with his feet inches from his elbows. A hand popped, and then another, and he shot downwards toward the slab. The rope came tight at my waist, pulling at my harness and yanking me into the air. Bayard hung inches above from the slab, suspended from his gear at the lip. “They held,” he said with a smile.

He stood up and shook his hands out like he was shaking water off them, and then he started climbing again. He grabbed the hold at the lip, this time with determination. He curled in again, like he cannon-balling into a pool, and stuck his feet to the roof. A hand shot out and grabbed the next hold up, then his other hand bounced up the edge of the crack. His left toe hooked up over the lip, and he pulled himself up into the crack.

(I would love to have a picture of this sequence, but I was engrossed in belaying. I’m sure he preferred me paying attention to his life rather than my camera.)

He climbed another 40 feet and built an anchor. He shouted down, “Off belay!”

I went through a similar sequence, falling once and then climbing over the lip second try. I met Bayard at the belay, and then continued on to the summit, leading the clean, beautiful handcrack above. We topped out at the same anchor as the first route and quickly rappelled to the ground.

It was getting late, and following the tape, much less the compass, would be a challenge in the dark. We loaded our packs, pulled on our boots, and turned our backs to the cliff. With the south needle sitting where the north had been we made our way back through the woods. At the hiking trail, after the tape and the bog, we sat down to drink some water and eat. The orange sunlight splashed over the cliff, the last view we got of the day.

We made it back to the car an hour later, exhausted. I pulled off my boots and put on my flipflops, while Bayard went barefoot in the passenger seat.

“Not a bad adventure,” Bayard said as I fired up the car. I hurt all over, from my hands to my feet to my back to my shoulders. I looked over at him and laughed. Yes, I had to concur, it was not a bad adventure at all.

Note: This is a taste of a side project I’m working on launching. I see Coös as the frontier of outdoor adventure; it simply hasn’t been tapped. I had a great day out there, and I think other people with similar interests will be doing the same thing someday soon. Hopefully it will be part of the new economic mix the region is looking for.

Also, in the second photo I took some errant twigs and branches out of the sky with Photoshop to give a clearer view of the cliff. It’s not something I would normally do on LPJ, and never in the paper, but here the goal is to make people understand the asset they have in their back yard. Hopefully it helped. In journalism such things are unacceptable, but this doesn’t fall into my journalism category. Regardless, I felt the need for full disclosure. Thus enduth my disclaimer.

Update: I found the history of the two bolts I passed on the first pitch of The Pikey. I spoke with Tad Pfeffer, who said he and Dwight Bradley climbed something matching the description of the first pitch of the route back in 1971. He said they climbed partway up but didn’t continue to the top of the cliff. We didn’t see any evidence anyone had climbed higher than the second bolt (which had webbing threaded through it in the style of a rappel anchor and was a little below our first belay), so I’m pretty confident we were the first climbers to do the route. I’ve changed the text in the photo from FRA (First Recorded Ascent) to FA (First Ascent) to reflect my research. I’m hoping to do many more FAs out there.

Damage Control Only

I was listening to the Exchange on NHPR on Monday, where they were talking about the state’s budget challenges. One of the guests, Steve Norton from the New Hampshire Center for Public Policy Studies, commented that the state budget was essentially in crisis mode, trying to keep things moving until next year when they might be able to make some long-term decisions if the economic situation improved. This year, he said, was just stopgap measures to keep the ship afloat.

That, unfortunately, is where Berlin is as well, and its easy to see where it leads.

The school department laid off 10 teachers last week. They had to make the cuts in order to keep their budget flat, which the council requested/mandated. That’s 10 middle class, upstanding residents that will be out of work unless something changes.

The school department is a big employer in Berlin. Like the hospital, the prison and numerous other social service agencies around the city, it does not contribute to the tax base, but it contributes jobs. The city is in the position where it needs to slash funding for fire fighters, teachers and possibly police officers, but these cuts simply mean the city loses a few more upstanding residents.

Councilor Danderson often comments that the good people are leaving. What can the city do to stop it? Not eliminating their job would be one way, but then the expense falls on everyone else.

The goal of keeping the tax rate flat is important, as Berlin already taxes higher than most of the rest of the state. But when does keeping it flat become too much of a risk? When the city starts speeding up the very exodus it is trying to prevent it may just be time to start reevaluating.

Now I say this without being a property owner. Because New Hampshire doesn’t have an income or sales tax I largely escape the impact of the state’s taxes, and I completely escape the impact of Berlin’s. But the city can’t support vital services it needs, and because of it they lose twice. First, there are fewer teachers, so class size goes up, and second, those teachers move away to find work somewhere else. Heck, they may even lose a third time: the teacher sells the house they had bought and stop paying taxes on it. It may wind up just one more vacant building.

The council, however, doesn’t have much choice; no one wants to squeeze an extra $1 million out of Berlin residents. But somehow the city has to find a balance between fiscal prudence and maintaining adequate services. No one will move there if the fire department can’t respond or their kids get a poor education.

Up to now city departments survived with meager resources, and they have done the job well. But the accounts I’ve heard is that this year budgets are too tight to keep shaving the dollars off. Something has got to give. It’s either jobs or taxes, and no one wants to give up either. It’s a terrible choice, and I wouldn’t want to have to make it.

People need go to council meetings and voice their opinions. Is it worse to raise taxes or to lose services and people? They aren’t my taxes, so I can’t say, and they aren’t my services either. Where I live there aren’t city level services, so I have no idea what is a fair price for such things. The people who pay for and use the services need to tell the council how they feel, and what direction they want to see these two things go. Too often people comment on the budget only during the public hearing, when everything is set, finalized and printed. They make changes at this point, but only minor ones. If people want a major change in policy they have to speak up early.

But maybe they don’t. Maybe, like some people have said, Berlin should essentially become a town and forget about maintaining city-level services. The city has the population for it, maybe it would work. I’m not sure who would watch over the excess infrastructure, but that would be a problem for another day.

A city may be like a business, however: if you aren’t growing you’re failing. Berlin isn’t growing right now, and turning into a town or cutting jobs doesn’t help. They need growth, certainly, but the question is what decisions this budget cycle will best spur such growth, maintaining taxes and cutting services or raising taxes and maintaining services? What will do more good over the long-term? At this point, the city is writing a budget based on damage control. For a shot at a future, however, the city needs to take deliberate action. Hopefully they are fully invested, one way or the other.

Empty Square Windows

This is not about Berlin. Berlin has a lot of empty windows, but in some ways, those windows will be easier to fill than those just down the street.

Recognize this?

Rite Aid just moved out of Gorham, and this is what they left. I’m trying to imagine what tenant is going to move into this building, with it’s steeple and rounded corner. I can’t think of anyone, short of another Rite Aid.

How about this one?

Shaw’s was closed by the time I started working in Berlin, but I stopped by two years ago after a day of rock climbing. Now it’s a mass of a empty windows and floor space. Only a supermarket would suffice to fill it.

Here’s the problem with sprawl—when chains fail or stores close there is no one else that can fill their shoes. In Portland, Maine, where I went to college, this has become a problem. Out by the mall (actually in South Portland) there is an empty Circuit City building; just over the town line, in Scarborough, there is an empty Walmart building. It isn’t that the Walmart went out of business—right next door is the Super Walmart, which overshadowed the original store.

Imagine building a building that couldn’t be used for anything else. Imagine the shell of a city entirely made of chain stores.

You don’t have to go far to see it. Head down to North Conway, with the empty buildings spread around the US Route 16 and 302 intersection, and you’ll have a good picture of it. New developments were built as stores moved and expanded, and now the old buildings are standing vacant. The economic crisis didn’t help.

The tough part is how these big box shells pigeon-hole a place: it’s hard to think of them as anything but chain stores. There is a nice restaurant in North Conway, the Black Cap Grille (bad website, good food), in one of the new developments. It is a great place to eat, with good food and a nice atmosphere; unfortunately it looks like an Applebee’s from the outside, not a local restaurant. It’s in a space more likely to house a Payless shoe store. They did a great job transforming the warehouse-like interior into a nice place to eat, but they had to work hard to make the experience inviting.

A Gorham example: Mr. Pizza. The warehouse look doesn’t inspire confidence, no matter how the food tastes.

Places without these types of developments are in many ways so much better off. The empty buildings in Berlin are an eyesore, no doubt, but it’s not hard imagining almost every single one of them filled with just about anything. They are not, like the Rite Aid building in Gorham, so unique and quirky as to preclude a useful future. Since I’ve been there I’ve heard proposals for television stations, restaurants, casinos, theaters, retail stores, breweries and more in various properties around town, and every one of them seemed plausible. The type of development in Berlin has left it open to anything that can come its way.

Take the Gill building, which several local families rehabilitated. They stripped it to the shell and put in office space, retail space and apartments. The building that houses the daily paper is similar: it’s been rehabbed, and now supports several businesses of different stripes. Morin’s Shoe Store is in a beautiful building as well, and the old Berlin Reporter building is on its way up. Each could house just about anything; they aren’t locked in to what was there in the past.

The former Rite Aid building, which the Berlin Industrial Park and Development Authority now owns, is the closest thing Berlin has to Gorham’s Shaw’s. BIDPA has been working to renovate it, and included in that is a plan to change the facade to better fit in with the rest of Main Street. It isn’t something that will stick out for years to come, and it could easily become something besides a pharmacy.

There are a few distinct properties in the downtown. The courthouse, only recently vacated (aside from the housing coordinator and building inspector, two of the hardest working “departments” in the city) is a beautiful building that hopefully will be saved. It, like Saint Kieran’s and city hall, is a gem worthy of preserving. It has character, something the new courthouse lacks. (Of course the new courthouse is ADA compliant, safer for employees and the people using it, and has parking. Win some, lose some.)

There are warehouses out on Route 110, but they are just big. They are not so overdesigned as to only be able to provide space for one business. Try turning a Walmart into anything else. A Sam’s Club, maybe, but not a performance space.

Berlin is lucky. It missed much of the late 20th century development, with the McDonald-ization of restaurants and retail space. It’s development didn’t ever sprawl outward, in the way Gorham, North Conway and the I-93 corridor did. While in 1990 that might have seemed a liability, in 2010 it is an asset. Berlin has a jumpstart on smart development, with a walkable city and properties that can easily transition from one use to the next. There may be gaping holes on Main Street and around the city, but they aren’t gaping holes that are impossible to fill. The future of Berlin has yet to be written, but unlike many communities Berlin isn’t tied by the yoke of late 20th century car culture. It was built in the early 20th century; who knew that would put it on the forefront of development in the 21st?

Comments and Conversations

There was an interesting comment made on a post from last week that I thought was worth delving into. I wrote out a long reply, and I thought it was a good enough question/discussion to become a post. As I’ve said in the past, I appreciate contradicting opinions here, because they make me think. Berliner’s question made me think, and write, why it is I don’t come out staunchly against the Laidlaw proposal, aside from the obvious fact that my profession precludes it. I know this discussion always gets people fired up, but a lot has been happening lately, so it’s worth revisiting as the SEC review moves forward.

One more thing:

I want to thank Berliner for the question, both for its content and its tone. It was asked with respect, which often evaporates in this discussion, particularly online. My opinion may not match yours, and I may have flaws in my logic. Anyone can welcome to disagree with me, and I encourage opposing viewpoints. I don’t erase any comments (except the spam I’ve been getting lately since I moved from Blogger, not sure what that’s about), but I appreciate thoughtful discussion more than vitriolic rants. Please follow Berliner’s lead and disagree cordially; insults don’t change minds.

Berliner’s comment:

Erik,

I know you cannot admit this because it would upset your good friends (Grenier, Rozek & Danderson) but doesn’t your gut tell you that having a biomass plant in the middle of the City won’t be real conducive to tourism development efforts? Open your mind for a minute and think of the possibilities of this City without heavy industry in the downtown area. Doesn’t that seem like a wonderful opportunity to you? I know you don’t have children but if you did and if you lived on the East side of Berlin would you want your child to grow up in the shadow of a biomass plant? Do you like recreating in the woods or do you enjoy hiking through miles of clear cuts? If you try hard enough, I think you might begin to realize that the City of Berlin (and Coos County for that matter) is much better off without Laidlaw than it will be with it.

Now that I’m off my soap box I’d love to hear why you believe a biomass plant in downtown Berlin is such a great idea for this City. The Pros of the plant do not even come close to outweighing the Cons. There are only 2 benefits; 40 jobs and some added tax revenue. That is not enough for me to welcome Laidlaw to my community with open arms.

What do you say my friend? Do you have an opinion or are you simply convinced that Grenier in his infinite wisdom knows what is best for the City and therefore we should all capitulate to this car salesman while he tries to sell us a lemon?

Berliner

My reply:

Berliner —

Thanks for your thoughtful comments.

I see a bright future for Berlin with or without a biomass plant in the center of the city. Berlin’s future isn’t dependent on the success or failure of the Laidlaw proposal, or, for that matter, the Clean Power Development proposal. It is dependent on the city’s ability to diversify its economy after a century of relying on one industry. Today no single project can turn the city around, and no single project can bring it down.

Would 40 jobs help? Yes. Would 100 logging and trucking jobs help? Yes. Would cleaning up the mill site and transforming it into a productive space provide benefits? Yes. Will it be the key that turns Berlin’s future around? No.

Berlin’s future, in my mind, is a ship in mid-turn. Even if both biomass plants get built they won’t create as many jobs as the federal prison. A river-walk and cheap steam to the Cascade mill in two years won’t do as much to revitalize the city as the millions of dollars being spent to rehabilitate whole neighborhoods. The ATV park is one part of Berlin’s future, the college is another. Main Street retail shops and the state prison fill another niche. The future of Berlin is in the mix, not one industry, and that mix is still growing and developing. Someday soon Berlin may have a truly diverse economy, but the ship has to keep turning to make that happen.

A biomass plant won’t jeopardize this new path. A redeveloped mill site won’t close the prison. It won’t close the ATV park. It won’t stop the educational opportunities at WMCC, and it won’t reverse the rehabilitation the city’s neighborhoods are undergoing.

Are there legitimate concerns? Absolutely. If loggers strip the forest bare in order to feed the biomass plants it would threaten recreational tourism, a key portion of the city’s future. If either company is out to make a quick buck off Berlin instead of follow through on its commitment that would be a problem. But those concerns are not the same as to whether Berlin can survive with a biomass plant in its downtown.

Berlin can survive no matter what. Berlin residents have seen hard times, and better times are on the horizon. The biomass plants, should they be built or should they fail, are simply a bump along Berlin’s journey. They are one more possibility, one possible slice of Berlin’s future economic base.

The truth of it is I don’t exactly agree with either side. Mayor Grenier and Councilor Danderson seem to think this project will be Berlin’s savior. It won’t. But opponents seem to think it will be Berlin’s undoing. It won’t. It may or may not happen, and whether it does or not Berlin will have to continue to spread its economic tentacles for a sustainable future.

I understand the argument of both, but I agree with neither. The project won’t save the city, but it also won’t end all possibilities for other development. I know it’s in the center of town, but what do the Main Street people always say? A city’s face is it’s Main Street. Energy might be better spent supporting growth there than fighting development elsewhere.

Instead, energy has been squandered in this debate. People spend hours protesting this one project, while other projects, like Rumorz Boutique, fail. What if opponents of Laidlaw became vocal supports of Main Street? What would that do? What if supporters of Laidlaw became active opponents of slumlords? What would Berlin turn into then? I understand the ideological divide, but I lament the lost possibilities. Berlin will succeed or fail based on its overall economic diversity, which is far more encompassing than one project. A biomass plant on the mill site matters little in the long run.

If the SEC does their job the project will either be well-run or will never get off the ground—either works fine for me. Berlin’s future is based on more than just this one project, and this one project doesn’t have the ability to end the city’s rise.

Again, I do appreciate your comments and the thoughtful discussion.

Quick aside: I didn’t address Berliner’s question about kids playing around the stacks. I have never looked into questions of the safety of emissions from biomass plants. That would be an interesting conversation for the industry as a whole, not just Laidlaw, CPD. and Berlin I’ve heard some talk about it in discussions about the projects, but I don’t know about its impact overall. Hmm… I smell a story here.

Danderman

It’s budget season in Berlin. I’ve been putting in my nights at city hall, listening to the discussions and pouring over my binder. The budget is the most important thing the city council does, and this year councilors a tough choice: increase taxes or cut services.

Berlin doesn’t have money to spare, largely because of contractually agreed-upon salary and benefit increases. It seems likely municipal employees will come to the table to negotiate, but those negotiations still won’t make the difference. The city needs more cuts if it is going to keep taxes flat.

Enter Councilor Robert Danderson, the city’s most effective budget scrutinizer.

When it comes to city dollars, no one is as meticulous as Councilor Danderson. He asks tough questions, examines line items and cross-references communities, all to see if he can squeeze water out of a stone.

His approach is rough, almost bullyish, and he asks the questions everyone else is too tactful to ask.

Councilor Danderson is a political lightning rod. He doesn’t stop talking, even when other people are talking, and he barges his way into conversations with controversial views. He asks whether specific services or agencies are needed at all or if the city could do without them. Such direct questioning seems harsh, but it forces departments to justify their expenses. It ensures the money is going somewhere useful. Right now, when the city is struggling, his approach becomes an asset.

It’s an asset because he doesn’t have any real power. He is only one of nine, and he plays bad cop while the rest of the council is good cop. Last night, at the police department budget review, Chief Peter Morency got ridden up one side and down the other by Councilor Danderson. But Chief Morency was well prepared, and his answers showed the department is working to control costs. The rest of the council enjoys the benefit hearing wide-ranging explanations about expenditures, without getting into political battles with the departments. The city, meanwhile, gets a well-vetted budget.

Although last night looked like it was about more than just fiscal responsibility: as I understand it, Councilor Danderson and the police commission have some history. It was before my time, but it explains the fevered pitch of his questions.

But he did the same thing with the outside agencies, without the distasteful sneer. (Actually, the sneer came back when Northern Forest Heritage Park came up.) He did the same thing with administration, and with the school department, and with every department that has come before the council. The owner of the ambulance service, which is a private entity the city contracts with, said he’d been warned about Councilor Danderson.

If his reputation as a budget hawk engenders a little fear in departments it might be a good thing. It may convince them to do their homework, to make sure all the fat is trimmed before they come to the council. It may, in the long run, save the city money, something everyone in Berlin is desperately trying to do.

While political tension builds around other issues, one thing every councilor can agree on is the need to trim budgets. Councilor Danderson is a divisive figure. His tenure as Berlin’s mayor and the political moves that won him his council seat have proved distasteful for some, but over the next three months he may be invaluable. The city needs to figure out how to save several million dollars, and Councilor Danderson is the city’s best tool for doing that. Sometimes it’s good to be needed.

SEC Heat

I’ll be posting video of Mayor Paul Grenier’s presentation to the SEC on Tuesday shortly. It’ll also go up on the Reporter’s Facebook page. It is his complete comments, from those approved by the city council to those of Burnham Judd, which he read, to his own comments, which he shared with the SEC.

There have been some grumblings about his comments, how they were presented, and the fact the other councilors from the coalition that ran together last fall also got up to speak. I’ll be delving into that in next week’s paper, but suffice to say I heard from several councilors that the relative Monday night tranquility is over.

So stay tuned for the video. I have to split it in half to get it on YouTube, so it doesn’t run over the ten minute requirement, but I’ll get it up shortly.

Subtle Splits

City council last night went late last night because they had to return to the work session to discuss what Mayor Grenier will say tonight in the council’s name at the SEC hearing. That discussion broke down along predictable lines for a time, until the speech was reduced to language that was amenable to all councilors. It was an interesting debate, one that seemed largely Mayor Grenier versus the former council members.

Not that all the former council members are opposed to Laidlaw. Councilors David Poulin, Tim Cayer and Tom McCue are pretty staunchly opposed, but Councilor Ryan Landry has a more subtle positions: he said he needs more questions to be answered before he can get behind the project.

Councilors Mark Evans and Lucie Remillard are both in favor of the project (or, to more accurately represent Councilor Evans, he doesn’t feel the city has the right to dictate what a private landowner does with their property), but they spoke up against any effort to bowl over the minority opinion. Councilor Evans even objected to the tone Mayor Grenier was using because he said it didn’t convey respect for divergent viewpoints.

Councilor Robert Danderson raised some points in favor of the project, but he also said he had concerns about how either biomass company will survive in the current energy market. He is concerned about the project, he said, but he’s more concerned no development will occur and Berlin will continue on its downward slide.

Councilor Rozak largely kept his mouth closed. He only commented that he would like to see a sheet listing the jobs and corresponding salaries Laidlaw will offer, and that he wanted to hear the council’s opinion on the revised language of the speech. He did not get caught up in the discussion, particularly when it got heated.

The exchange got my 600 words my writeup about council this week, so if you want more pick up the Reporter. What I found interesting about the night was a few hours earlier. During some routine business Councilors Cayer, Landry, McCue and Poulin voted in opposition to removing a resolution from the table. They then voted in opposition to killing the resolution. The resolution was for a grant for a local agency that withdrew their request, so I’m not exactly sure why this happened. Then, a few resolutions later, Councilors Landry, McCue and Poulin voted against another resolution. This one I could understand the opposition, but understand that every other vote was unanimous last night, and there were perhaps 30 votes.

I’m going to try to find out what’s going on. It seemed to me an opposition coalition was forming last night, but that may be completely wrong. It was an interesting chain of events, however, and hopefully I’ll be able to explain it better in the coming weeks.

SEC update

While Tuesday will likely be the big event in Berlin, the Laidlaw review started in earnest on Thursday in Concord. At the pre-hearing conference the SEC outside counsel went over the schedule and petitioners’ plans for testimony. The Reporter will have my full story (finished it earlier today, 750 words). It will likely get lost, however, as the Berlin hearings are the night before my paper comes out, but there was some important discussions there that should come out.

SEC outside counselor Michael Iacopino brought up an interesting problem for people worried about wood: fuel supply has not traditionally been part of the SEC’s mandate. When a coal powered facility opens in New Hampshire the SEC doesn’t ask where they are getting their coal, he said, and if an oil or natural gas plant were to open they wouldn’t ask then either. So it is imperative, he said, that petitioners point out why the issue they are raising falls under the SEC’s purview. Look at the law, he said, and make sure it is there.

The statute that creates and tasks the SEC does talk about “the overall economic growth of the state, the environment of the state, and the use of natural resources” when describing why the legislature created the SEC, but it is unclear how that applies to wood.

Transmission raises similar issues, since ISO New England doesn’t fall under the SEC, and therefore the committee cannot force them to do anything. There may be forces beyond the committee’s control in in these proceedings, and two of the key issues people are concerned about may be among them.

Transmission and wood supply were the most repeated concerns raised by potential intervenors. Now the attorneys are going to have to go to work, to formulate convincing arguments as to why the SEC should concern itself with these issues. Since the law doesn’t clearly include either of these in their jurisdiction it may take some legal gymnastics to make the arguments stick. I’m interested to see where that goes.

But for people concerned about the appearance of the project, the attorney representing the public, Senior Assistant Attorney General Allen Brooks, said one of his concerns was whether the project will fit within the community. He wanted to make sure it wouldn’t be an eyesore, he said. Whether it is or not depends largely on how you feel about the project overall, I imagine, so that will be a tough issue to sort out cleanly. But the public counsel has certainly heard the concerns of some Berlin residents. Now we’ve got seven more months to see where this all goes.

Not Enough Space

The entire city of Berlin should have come to the council meeting tonight. It didn’t clear up as much as it should have, but it posed so many interesting discussions I could write an entire paper out of it.

George Sansoucy, the utility appraiser that assesses the city’s big, hard to assess properties, gave an hour and a half presentation. That alone could have been four stories (I had 400 to 500 words, and I had to squeeze everything else in too). It’s too bad there weren’t more people there to hear it.

He recommended the city get a payment in lieu of taxes, or a PILT, from the utility companies proposing projects in the city. His rational was that it provides a consistent revenue, and that the city could get good revenues for years, even after the assets have sunk in value. The city may start out getting a little less, but in thirty years the city winds up getting more than they would from the assessed value of a worn out biomass plant. Long term planning; that sounds exactly like what Berlin ought to be doing.

He also said there is no hope for district heating unless oil goes up three fold, but some of his comments about plant efficiency didn’t make much sense. Bill Gabler, from Clean Power, was there, and they were geeking out on technical specks (in addition to being an assessor, Mr. Sansoucy is a professional engineer) but their figures weren’t lining up. There was talk of efficiency, and how some plants are efficient at 60 percent, and others at 20 percent, but the engineers in the room couldn’t agree. So while that conversation was interesting it certainly wasn’t helpful in determining the possibility of such development.

And then there was the race, which isn’t even going to make it into the paper. After the fire department troubles hiring an assistant fire chief and Mr. Sansoucy, I didn’t have room to spare, but it appears a reality show is coming to Berlin to run a road rally, thanks to the efforts of representative Paul Ingersol. You can check out the organization here. The council had a few questions, but they seemed enthusiastic, because the event would get people into the city.

I was just having a discussion about how the city and the county need events, both on LPJ and recently in Berlin. This is perfect, but it needs more. Berlin has multiple petro-fueled events, from an ATV rally to a motorcycle rally to a rally race to an old car show. Sometimes I wonder if the North Country is trying to prop up some Emir in Kuwait. The events are key, but somebody has to start proposing something different. Or, to put it better, let’s have all these events, but let’s also try branching out. What about a film festival? Or multi-stage bicycle race? These aren’t things Berlin is familiar with, but maybe the city needs to look beyond the low-hanging fruit.

But I digress. The police department also stopped by to talk about replacing a telephone line to a radio tower that connects their dispatch center with their patrol cars. They pay $500 a month for the connection, which has gone out three times since December. It is antiquated, the police chief said, and the department needs council approval to shift funds around their capital improvement budget to pay for an upgrade. Again, that won’t make it in the paper because of space issues.

I look at the agenda each Monday and tell my editor how long I think my story will be for the council meeting. I am invariably wrong. There is always more going on at council than I can cover, and I often only get small parts and pieces. It’s a shame, but luckily residents have multiple sources from with to get their news.

But recently I’ve begun to doubt the ability of any paper, mine or otherwise, to truly do justice to these meetings. There is just too much going on for me to cover in 500, or even 5,000 words. I try my best, but there is no substitute for being there.

The turnout, however, is always low. I spoke to one man this weekend who is often there, and he said he doesn’t think the council values resident input. I disagree. I’ve seen councilors change their minds after hearing strong words during the public comments. What Berlin needs is engaged citizens, particularly those willing to share their views with their representatives.

It becomes like a soap opera, or maybe like “Desperate Housewives,” when you go week to week, and I don’t mean that pejoratively. I have grown to know and like the characters, to enjoy their personal quirks and to watch their interactions. They are nine people struggling together and against one another to right the listing ship that is Berlin. To pop in on one episode might seem boring, and some days things never pick up, but overall Monday nights are entertaining as well as informative at city hall. It surprises me that people would prefer to watch television, when real drama that affects them is going on so nearby.

So this is my impassioned plea: give it a few shots. Make it out to council, and not just for one episode. I know people who read LPJ care about politics, the city, and raising the bar on the debate, but most Monday nights no one is there. If even just for a few weeks the auditorium was packed, what a difference it would make.

Incidentally, that makes for the best sunshine. The press’ first obligation is to the people, but here is an opportunity for the people to bypass the media. Even if I could always get it right I don’t have room for it all. Instead, just show up. If you miss a week, grab the paper, and I’ll fill you in on what you missed. But unless you know the characters, the plot twists and the progression, my explanation will never be enough. It takes more investment than that. So come on out and enjoy your public officials. You are their bosses, come make sure they’re doing what you require.

Spring into Action

I’m approaching one year of working in Berlin, and one thing I’ve noticed is transitions take time. The talk about what it takes to reinvigorate the city has been going on for far longer than I’ve been there, but the changes have been slow to come.

Or have they? The transition will not come with a splash, in a way that people will recognize and point to. It will come in fits and starts, with small-scale development followed by larger development.

SaVoir Flair and Rumorz, for example, are recent additions to Main Street. They are surviving, and as more development comes (read: federal prison) they will do even better. They are the first seeds; signs that could be missed or ignored by the careless. They are harbingers of better things.

The fire department just inspected Fagin’s Pub to allow them to reopen—another business opens its doors. There are positive things happening, but it is difficult to determine when changes are really happening. When are things truly improving, and when is it just window dressing?

Berlin has things to offer. I was speaking to the city’s contract development director today (who acknowledges his days as such are numbered) and he commented on the city’s potential. I would say the same is true of all of Coös County, of everything north of the notches. The only thing missing a realization by the rest of the Northeast of what is there.

I don’t know how it starts. I think its with one person. Or two people. Or five. I think if a half dozen people who have never seen northern New Hampshire’s beauty are exposed to it, at least one of them will decide to come back.

I love to rock climb and ice climb—both of those activities are there. My wife loves to ski—that’s available too. Fishing, canoeing, camping, hunting, whitewater rafting—it’s all there, just waiting to be discovered.

But how do you get those five people, those 10 people, up for the first time?

My idea for free housing for college graduates got shot down, but maybe people will like this: a bluegrass festival at Northern Forest Heritage Park.

Berlin is an incredible place, and it is in need of great art, great culture and great creativity. Those sorts of things draw people, and those people spend money. People in the North Country often equate tourism with North Conway, and all the outlets, strip malls and big box stores that characterize it. I grew up on the coast of Maine, however, where there are towns like Bar Harbor and Rockport, not just Freeport. Brunswick, Maine, is on the Androscoggin as well, and its old mill buildings have been turned into movie theaters and photography studios. I see that in Berlin in another dozen years, because the prices and the pristine location are prime for it.

But how do you get from A to B? And won’t people be scared away?

Easy, and no. People will be scared away, sure, but not the ones willing to invest. Just like entrepreneurs see opportunity where others don’t, some of the people introduced to Berlin will see the opportunity there. It has already happened and is still happening. Each non-native who lives there is an example of this. Tim Cayer, Katie Paine, Racheal Stuart, Tom McCue—these are all people who picked up to move to Berlin, not to move away. They may be the first drops of rain, but there are surely going to be more people out there like them. Berlin needs to find them. Every one of them saw Berlin’s flaws when they moved there, and it didn’t scare them away. There are more people out there who would feel the same way—they just haven’t had the opportunity to find out that they do.

So if one out of five, or one out of 10, 20 or 30, will look through Berlin’s rough exterior to appreciate it’s core, how do you get those individuals up there?

Events. Berlin, and all of Coös County, is essentially Vacationland. It may be on Maine’s license plates, but it is true in the Androscoggin Valley and elsewhere. Berlin residents must realize the astounding beauty that surrounds them. I know they’ve had it all their lives, but they must. Northern New Hampshire is the kind of place the rest of the world would love to spend their vacations, but as far as Boston knows New Hampshire stops in Jackson.

Berlin has mountains, rivers, woods and cliffs. It offers so much, and yet it is always so quiet. I look at the events that happen in the region over the course of the year, and I realize how insulated the community is. Riverfire, and Thunder in the Mountains, and the Northern Forest Rally Race, and Drive in to the 50s are all great, but they appeal to Berlin. This is a premier location for other things, events that appeal to larger audiences. Where are those events? Where are the things that might pull in people from around the region, not necessarily of the type the region is intimately familiar?

I want a bluegrass festival. Or a jazz festival. Or blues. They do it in Rockland; why not in Berlin?

Or multi-stage adventure race, that traverses the Killkenny range and rafts the Magalloway? A multi-stage bike race from Grand Hotel to Grand Hotel? Or an art show along the Androscoggin?

I know it seems far fetched, but people who are introduced to Berlin seem to love it. Those who have preconceived notions often aren’t willing to hear about it, but when they see it for themselves their minds change. Berlin, and all of Coös County, has to get better at changing those minds. It has to get people there, show them around, and let them make their own decisions. It won’t require a four-lane highway; it will require making something worth coming for. That’s the challenge, and it’s something the region can handle. Berlin, I think, as the only city in the county, should take a leading role in the effort. It should show just what can happen with some action.